Five want you to complete…” Is homework

Five
minutes left of class on a Friday afternoon everyone is exhausted from a long
week and is ready to go home and just as the bell is about to ring you hear the
dreadful words you’ve been avoiding “over the weekend I want you to complete…”
Is
homework beneficial or harmful to students? Is so much homework given to
students that it interferes with other interests that students enjoy? Does
homework intervene with family time? Homework is school work that is assigned
to be done outside of the class room. But is that extra work needed and does it
do more harm than good. This paper will give a general overview as to why
homework is not needed as it causes stress, is often times excessive and it
causes students to be inactive and unsociable.

We
all know the downfall of homework: the frustration and exhaustion, family
conflict, time loss, and decreasing interest in learning. No study has ever
demonstrated any academic achievement linked to assigning homework. There is
also no support to the fact that homework provides nonacademic benefits at any
age. Here are a few examples: building character, promoting self-discipline, or
teaching good work habits. All teachers who assign homework want to believe
that the gain outweighs the pain. Although, there is no evidence of that and
they must rely on faith (“Homework: No Proven Benefits”, pg. 1). Michellea, a
mother of a middle school student, says that some work can reinforce certain
skills, but hours of homework are unhealthy and unproductive. Mominseattle
agrees. She contemplates that such a heavy load can result in potential
drawbacks to the students. Hours of homework a night plus a full day of school
can be just as much work as an adult at a full-time job. She believes students
should enjoy their childhood, as short as it already is. MagnetMom complains
about how her daughter’s homework takes away her beneficial sleep. With busy
families, like hers, they have many after school activities, so when they get
home, they do not have time for too much homework. She says that the reality of
it is that they are an active family. For active families, homework causes
sleep deprivation and takes away the children’s energy they need for the next
day. (“How Homework Affects Families”, pg. 1). “I have thousands of assignments
every week; most of them are homework assignments. As a result, I’m cascaded
with homework every day, causing me to stay up until 11 o’clock at night more
often than not. In conclusion, this is a great threat to my health as a
developing teenager. It could stunt my growth, and result in fatigue and stress
because everyone knows that no good sleep leads to no good grades. Even if I
were to go to bed at a decent time, my homework wouldn’t be finished. Either
way is a couldesack at the end of a road (“Too Much Homework, Too Little Time”,
pg. 1).” Some teachers believe that students cannot have too much homework; the
more work assigned, the more learning. GreatsSchools parents disagree. They
believe that too many assignments take away family time. Two-income households
already have a small window for family time and homework only makes that window
smaller. The parents also believe that learning does not only take place in
school, but also outside of school (“How Homework Affects Families”, pg. 1).
“Stress is very unhealthy for growing teens and statistics show that 29% of
13-year old students report spending 2 or more hours on homework daily in the
U.S. Isn’t that a bit much? More homework means more stress. Stress can cause
many things, including: lack of sleep, slipping grades, fatigue, unhealthy
eating, depression, and many more factors. A teen should not have to face
depression at such a young age. So why do teenagers still have so much homework
(“Too Much Homework, Too Little Time”, pg. 1).”

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Students
are being deprived from their sleep as they try to complete all the huge
amounts of homework they receive. Students are struggling to finish homework
because it is too much in so little time. The massive amount of homework is
causing students to pass their bed time and that if affecting their education.
Performance in school and other activities are affected when students lack
sleep. A website subscriber on TeenInk wrote that “According to CNN Health’s
Medical Assignment Manager Ann J. Curley, studies have shown that more than
two-thirds of US teens report they are getting less than eight hours of sleep
on school nights, which is considered an insufficient amount of sleep for a
teen.” Sleep is very beneficial as it helps boost memory, improves
attentiveness, sharpens learning, and helps to lower stress. More homework and
less sleep is increasing students exhaustion to wake up and do the same routine
for the whole week which can create a lot of stress.

Teachers
are trying to do more with less, therefore, results in an overflow of homework
for the students. Teachers assign homework that they don’t discuss in class,
which overwhelms the students. They assign this confusing homework for the
reason that they do not have enough time in class to discuss the topic.
Teachers may not understand that handing the students a worksheet is not teaching
the students the lesson. Teachers can explain things in various ways to aid the
students. Teachers can also respond to any questions the students may have
(“Too Much Homework, Too Little Time”, pg. 1). Teachers assign so much work
because they don’t understand the students, don’t respect the students, or
don’t want the students to fall behind in their learning. Teachers mainly train
the students to sit still, listen, and run highlighters over the topics that
will be on the test. They only want the students to ace the test; therefore,
making the teacher look better (“Homework: No Proven Benefits”, pg. 1).

Homework
forces students to quit an afterschool activity. It is proven through
statistics that teens who participate in extracurricular activities have less
stress than students who do not participate in an activity. You are able to
join an activity, although your work may be left unfinished or you will have to
work harder to maintain your grades. A student could have worked in a sport for
a long time, then had to quit because of too much school work (“Too Much
Homework, Too Little Time”, pg. 1). Klein has an opinion of his own. He feels
that teens should have a well-balanced life that includes extracurricular
activities, physical activities, and fun. (pg. 1).” Why should students have to
give up something they love to do so much just to maintain grades in school?

Students
do the work for a couple of reasons: parents force them, college, or they
simply want to feel accomplished. Parents play a huge role in why children do
their homework. They can force their children by threatening to take one of
their possessions away from them; or they encourage their child by rewarding
them with a gift. Students certainly do not want to do hours of work, so they
only do it for the good grade. “If the kids weren’t being graded, they’d never
do it!” Students have a few motives for doing their homework, however not all
children have the parents to force them or the self-motivation to do their work
(“Homework: No Proven Benefits”, pg. 1).

Nevertheless,
there are many reasons why students do not do their assigned homework. I judge
that we can all agree that homework is fairly boring and is not interesting.
Students do not want to learn or work on something that doesn’t interest them.
Also, they may not understand the concept of the topic, so they find it
difficult and confusing. Some students lack time management and may have their
priorities mixed up. Both of these flaws can interfere with the organization to
do homework. Finally, students are not perfect and may actually forget to do
their homework. If teachers assign too much homework, how are students supposed
to keep up with all of it (“Why Your Students Don’t Do Their Homework”, pg. 1)?
“I couldn’t even count how many kids just take the easy way out and disengage
from the homework given at my school. They refuse to do homework and it’s
lowering their grades. But I can’t blame them because I ask myself on a daily
basis why I don’t just quit already and join the rest of the crown. I could
actually have a life then instead of doing homework all day. I could
participate in extracurricular activities like I used to when I participated in
lacrosse, but now I can’t because my grades are slipping due to not finishing
homework! I could do fun things instead of homework because it keeps me cooped
up inside like a prisoner in a penitentiary cell and I hate it (“Too Much
Homework, Too Little Time”, pg. 2)!” In conclusion, there are many reasons why
students do not finalize their homework.

Tristen
Pearson loved homework up until 8th grade when teachers began piling homework
on the students. She was involved in SGA, Varsity Softball, and Varsity
Volleyball and was a straight A student. She was on spring break and had tons
of homework to finish. Spring break is about relaxation and a break from
school, not more work. Her and her family would brawl every day since she had
to spend her time on her homework and not with the family. Also, she and her
friends had become distant as she had no free time to hang out with them.
Depression took over for the reason of too much homework. Also, she became
stressed and it was overwhelming for her. Tristen Pearson seems like she was a
remarkable student, but even she was overthrown by homework (“How Homework
Affects Families”, pg. 3).

Teachers
are unaware of the homework that the student is already receiving from other
teachers. This is what causes students to struggle to learn, and not have extra
time for themselves. Homework should be moderated by teachers to a extent
everyday so a student is not receiving a tremendous amount of homework. Because
students are busy doing work every day, therefor parents are believing that
students are learning, since it is school work, but that may not be the cause
at all some students struggle to understand a topic and may be stuck on a
topic. At times teachers give unnecessary homework that is pointless and will
not help students benefit at all. Parents should be involved in they
daughter/son’s education and be aware of what he/she is learning. The writer
Alfie Kohn wrote on Rethinking Homework “Many parents are understandably upset
with how much time their children have to spend on homework. At a minimum, make
sure that teachers aren’t exceeding district guidelines and that they aren’t
chronically underestimating how long it takes students to complete the
assignments.”

Students are
overwhelmed and exhausted from the amount of homework assigned to them. All
they want is a break from it all. Too much homework and stress has been proven
to be unhealthy for developing teens. So why do teachers keep assigning so much
of something that is unhealthy?